Star Pilot

Star Pilot
Star Pilot
	Poster
Directed by	Pietro Francisci
Starring	Leonora Ruffo; Mario Novelli
Music by	Nico Fidenco
Release date	2 October 1966 (Italy);
Running time	89 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian

Star Pilot (Italian: 2+5: Missione Hydra) is a 1966 Italian science fiction film directed by Pietro Francisci. It stars Leonora Ruffo as Chaena

Plot edit

Chaena is the commander of a spaceship from the constellation Hydra, which has crashed on the island of Sardinia.

An Earth scientist, some technicians, their companions, and some Asian agents (they deny being Chinese because the Chinese cooperate with the Americans) are abducted by the aliens and forced to repair the ship.

With the ship repaired, the aliens decide to take the humans to Hydra for the purpose of genetic research, but while in flight, the humans mutiny.^[1]

Cast edit

Leonora Ruffo as Kaela
Mario Novelli (credited as Anthony Freeman) as Paolo Bardi
Roland Lesaffre as Prof. Solmi
Kirk Morris as Belsy
Alfio Caltabiano as Artie
Leontine Snell as Luisa Solmi
Nando Angelini as Morelli
Giovanni De Angelis as Giulio
John Sun as Dr. Chang
Antonio Ho as Chinese Secret Agent
John Chen as Chinese Secret Agent
Gordon Mitchell as Murdu (cameo appearance)

Reception edit

TV Guide found the movie poorly produced.^[2]

Production edit

Once in space, the film uses stock special-effects footage from Toho Studio's films Invasion of Astro-Monster and Gorath to depict a pursuit of Chaena's ship and an ecological catastrophe on Earth.

In the fall of 1977, to quickly capitalize on success of Star Wars, the film was dubbed in English and released in the United States under a new title. The English dub included references to "Star Fleet", "Star Fleet Command", "Warp Speed", and "Impulse Drive", as used in the Star Trek television series.